Monsanto Being Dragged To International Criminal Court

Monsanto are being assessed by an international court of lawyers and judges who will decide whether the controversial corporation are liable for “crimes against humanity”.

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA), IFOAM International Organics, Navdanya, Regeneration International (RI), and Millions Against Monsanto, announced at the UN’s climate change conference in Paris recently that the court in The Hague, Netherlands, will use the UN’s ‘Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’ to assess Monsanto’s potential crimes.

The court will also rely on the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2002, and it will consider whether to reform international criminal law to include crimes against the environment, or ecocide, as a prosecutable criminal offense.

This International Criminal Court, established in 2002 in The Hague, has determined that prosecuting ecocide as a criminal offense is the only way to guarantee the rights of humans to a healthy environment and the right of nature to be protected.

Speaking at the press conference, Ronnie Cummins, international director of the OCA (US) and Via Organica (Mexico), and member of the RI Steering Committee, said:

“The time is long overdue for a global citizens’ tribunal to put Monsanto on trial for crimes against humanity and the environment. . . Corporate agribusiness, industrial forestry, the garbage and sewage industry and agricultural biotechnology have literally killed the climate-stabilizing, carbon-sink capacity of the Earth’s living soil.”

This article is confusing and may lead people to reach incorrect conclusions. The ICC is a criminal court which has jurisidiction over ‘individual criminal responsibility’, not companies. Ecoside is not a crime against humanity, and even if it were to be created tomorrow, the principle of non-retroactivity would prevent any prosecutions for acts committed prior to its creation. No one can ‘sue’ anyone at the ICC. The ICC Prosecutor or the UN Security Council are the only two entities who can decide whether or not to launch a prosecution. The announcement is for a public trial or show trial of Monsanto, held by a number of NGOs in the Hague where the ICC sits…but has nothing to do with the ICC. However, there is hope that this kind of advocacy will lead to the international community taking ecological atrocities more seriously. I support this publicity stunt, but as an international criminal lawyer would like it to be presented in an honest and transparent manner.

Skeptical Brewer

This is not a Trial, this is not happening in a court, this is a PR stunt.